Overdose of a 15-year-old raises questions

The overdose death of a 15-year-old has raised questions about where minors can safely inject drugs in Vancouver.

Monday morning, Adriana Falcon's body was discovered in the boarding house she had been living in by another resident.

Police say Falcon's death was the result of a heroin overdose and issued a public warning on Monday asking people who do want to use heroin to do it in the presence of others.

"Do it in a safe facility such as Insite, who have trained professional there that if they do experience a drug overdose there are medical professional that can provide assistance to them" said Fincham.

But Insite — the supervised injection site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside — does not permit anyone under the age of 16 to inject on its premises.

"A youth can't go into the injection room, " says Russell Maynard with Insite for Community Safety, adding that allowing a youth into the system could jeopardize its very existence.

While supervised injection might not be an option, Mark Townsend, the executive director of Portland Hotel Society — the non-profit organization that runs Insite — says young people do have help available to them.

"At least we tell you safer ways of using this drug, offer you counselling help and try and get you hooked up to other services," says Townsend.

Statistics from the B.C. Coroners Service show that while accidental deaths from all types of illicit drugs have gone up, deaths among younger people have gone up only slightly.